{"id":4491,"date":"2025-12-21T07:35:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/21\/russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-1396\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T07:35:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:35:27","slug":"russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-1396","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/21\/russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-1396\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,396"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><main id=\"main-content-area\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-label=\"Main content area\"><\/p>\n<header>\n<p><em>These are the key developments from day 1,396 of Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<figure>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-20T125622Z_200783746_RC2HJIAAS607_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-KOSTIANTYNIVKA-1766271642.jpg?resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\"   alt=\"A Ukrainian serviceman fires artillery towards Russian forces\"><\/p><figcaption>A serviceman of the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reacts after firing a M109 self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops near the front-line town of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on December 19, 2025 [Sofiia Gatilova\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Here is where things stand on Sunday, December 21:<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"fighting\">Fighting<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The death toll from a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/20\/russian-attack-on-ukraines-odesa-kills-at-least-8-as-peace-talks-lumber-on\">Russian missile attack<\/a> on Ukraine\u2019s port city of Odesa rose from seven to eight, with at least 30 others wounded, according to Ukrainian authorities.<\/li>\n<li>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in Odesa as \u201charsh\u201d and accused Russia of trying to block Kyiv\u2019s access to the Black Sea.<\/li>\n<li>The Ukrainian leader also said that he is looking to replace the head of the Southern Air Command, Dmytro Karpenko, over the Russian strikes on Odesa.<\/li>\n<li>Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said Russian forces also attacked the nearby port of Pivdennyi on Saturday, hitting several reservoirs.<\/li>\n<li>Ukraine\u2019s military said its special forces carried out a drone attack on a Lukoil oil rig in the Caspian Sea on Friday, along with the Russian military patrol ship Okhotnik. The military also said that the Filanovsky oil rig, which had been targeted twice this month, was damaged in the strike.<\/li>\n<li>The Ukrainian military also said it destroyed two Russian fighter jets at an airfield in the occupied Crimean peninsula.<\/li>\n<li>Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence said its forces took control of the villages of Svitle and Vysoke, located in Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donetsk region and the northeastern Luhansk region, respectively.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"diplomacy-and-ceasefire-talks\">Diplomacy and ceasefire talks<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Zelenskyy said the United States proposed a new format for talks with Russia, comprised of three-way talks at the level of national security advisers from Ukraine, Russia, and the US.<\/li>\n<li>The Ukrainian leader expressed scepticism that the talks would result in \u201canything new\u201d, but added that he believes that US-led talks have the best chance of success.<\/li>\n<li>He added that he would support trilateral discussions if they led to progress in areas such as prisoner swaps or a meeting of national leaders. \u201cIf such a \u200dmeeting could be \u2060held now to allow for swaps of prisoners of war, or if a meeting of national security advisers achieves agreement on a leaders\u2019 meeting\u2026 I cannot be opposed. We would support such a US proposal. Let\u2019s see how things go,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<li>Zelenskyy also pushed back against calls for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/10\/zelenskyy-says-ukraine-ready-to-hold-polls-if-us-allies-ensure-security\">Ukraine to hold\u00a0elections<\/a> as the war drags on, stating that voting cannot take place in Russian-occupied areas and that security conditions must first improve. \u201cIt is not [Russian President Vladimir] Putin who decides when and in what format the elections in Ukraine will take place,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/li>\n<li>Zelenskyy urged European leaders to approve a measure to seize <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/17\/putin-slams-wests-war-hysteria-as-eu-mulls-russian-assets-for-ukraine\">frozen Russian assets<\/a> and use them to fund Ukraine\u2019s war effort, saying that doing so will strengthen Ukraine\u2019s leverage at the negotiating table. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that Ukraine will need about 137 billion euros ($161bn) in 2026 and 2027, as the demands of the war continue to strain the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/19\/eu-agrees-hefty-105b-ukraine-loan-without-using-russian-assets\">country\u2019s economy<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Russian special envoy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/19\/rubio-says-progress-but-ways-to-go-in-efforts-to-end-russia-ukraine-war\">Kirill Dmitriev held talks <\/a>with his US counterpart, Steve Witkoff, and US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the city of Miami.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe \u200cdiscussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and \u200cwill continue \u2060today, and will also continue tomorrow,\u201d \u200cDmitriev said<\/li>\n<li>Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov attended a summit in Cairo, held to advance closer cooperation between Russia and African nations, and attended by more than 50 countries. Lavrov pitched Russia as a \u201creliable partner\u201d to African countries in areas such as security and national sovereignty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"regional-security-weapons\">Weapons<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Ukrainian presidential aide Oleksandr Kamyshin announced a deal with Portugal on the joint production of maritime drones, saying it would help \u201cdefend Europe from the sea\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/main><\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are the key developments from day 1,396 of Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine. A serviceman of the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reacts after firing a M109 self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops near the front-line town of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on December 19, 2025 [Sofiia Gatilova\/Reuters] Here is &#8230; <a title=\"Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,396\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/21\/russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-1396\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,396\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}